80 1 A lamentable prayer to God to help the miseries of his Church, 8 Desiring him to consider their first estate, when his favor shined toward them, to the intent that he might finish that work which he had begun.
To him that excelleth on Shoshannim Eduth, A Psalm committed to Asaph.
1 Hear, [a]O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like sheep: show thy brightness, thou that sittest between the [b]Cherubims.
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come to help us.
3 [c]Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine that we may be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be [d]angry against the prayer of thy people?
5 Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink with great measure.
6 Thou hast made us a [e]strife unto our neighbors, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.
7 [f]Turn us again, O God of hosts: cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
8 Thou hast brought a [g]vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou madest room for it, and didst cause it to take root, and it filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the [h]goodly cedars.
11 She stretched out her branches unto the Sea, and her boughs unto the [i]river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they, which pass by the way, have plucked her?
13 The wild [j]boar out of the wood hath destroyed it, and the wild beasts of the field have eaten it up.
14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down [k]from heaven and behold, and visit this vine,
15 And the vineyard, that thy right hand hath planted, and the young vine, which thou madest [l]strong for thyself.
16 It is burnt with fire, and cut down: and they perish at the [m]rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thine hand be upon the [n]man of thy right hand, and upon the son of man, whom thou madest strong for thine own self.
18 So will not we go back from thee, [o]revive thou us, and we shall call upon thy Name.
19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts: cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Footnotes
- Psalm 80:1 This Psalm was made as a prayer for to desire God to be merciful to the ten tribes.
- Psalm 80:1 Move their hearts, that they may return to worship God aright: that is, in the place where thou hast appointed.
- Psalm 80:3 Join thy whole people, and all thy tribes together again.
- Psalm 80:4 The faithful fear God’s anger, when they perceive that their prayers are not forthwith heard.
- Psalm 80:6 Our neighbors have continual strife and war against us.
- Psalm 80:7 Because that repentance only cometh of God, they most instantly and ofttimes call to God for it as a means whereby they shall be saved.
- Psalm 80:8 Seeing that of thy mercy thou hast made us a most dear possession to thee, and we through our sins are made open for wild beasts to devour us, declare again thy love, and finish the work that thou hast begun.
- Psalm 80:10 Hebrew, cedars of God.
- Psalm 80:11 To wit, Euphrates.
- Psalm 80:13 That is, as well they that hate our religion, as they that hate our persons.
- Psalm 80:14 They gave not place to tentation, knowing that albeit there were no help in earth, yet God was able to succor them from heaven.
- Psalm 80:15 So that no power can prevail against it, and which as a young bud thou raisest up again as out of the burnt ashes.
- Psalm 80:16 Only when thou art angry and not of the sword of the enemy.
- Psalm 80:17 That is, upon this vine or people, whom thou hast planted with thy right hand, that they should be as one man or one body
- Psalm 80:18 For none can call upon God but such as are raised up as it were from death to life, and regenerate by the holy Spirit.